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Iran says it has set a 2020 target date to build its firstexperimental nuclear fusion reactor, a feat that has yet to be achievedby any nation.

Iran said in July that its nuclear agency began research on the experimental reactor.Nuclearfusion, the process powering the sun and stars, has so far only beenmastered as a weapon, producing the thermonuclear explosions ofhydrogen bombs. It has never been harnessed for power generation.AsgharSediqzadeh, the head of the new fusion research center, is quoted bythe semi-official ISNA news agency as saying the center will hire 100experts to join the national project.Tehran is not known to have carried out anything but basic fusion research.